Features
New Noise: Chris Russell, The Model School, Dan Trolley, Sex Wizard
By Doug Wallen
A blues standard, Byrds twang, bedroom rock and lumbering hardcore – it’s this week’s roundup of Soundcloud offerings.
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
– It’s a gutsy move, opening an album with a cover. But once you’ve heard the bristling run-through Chris Russell’s Chicken Walk give the Willie Dixon-penned Howlin’ Wolf classic ‘Evil’, you’ll understand why it’s right up the front on their self-titled debut. And of course, a song that’s been done by everyone from Captain Beefheart to Canned Heat (and, yes, Tom Jones) can only show the robust blues lineage informing the Melbourne band. Though its namesake singer-guitarist is still the focus, the one-time one-man-band is now a duo thanks to drummer Dean Muller (Hoss, Cosmic Psychos). Their album was recorded over a weekend at a 1909-built country hall in tiny Buckrabanyule, Victoria – with just two takes for each song – and mixed by Muller on the spot. It’s out now through Cobra Snake Necktie/Love & Theft, launching next Monday (Nov 5) at the Workers Club in Melbourne. After that, catch ’em at Golden Plains.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Chris Russell's Chicken Walk - Evil by Cobra Snake Necktie Recs
– The Model School dubbed themselves “Casio ’n’ Western” on 2009’s second album Memory Walls, but now the Sydney band are leaning heavily toward the second half of that equation. ‘Pictures of Summer’ is the kind of brightly twanging tune that begs for western shirts and sun-soaked drives. It’s a perfect sequel to ‘Streets I Left Behind’, maintaining the Byrds-style guitar and peppy resilience. The band will launch the single song tonight (Nov 1) at the Union Hotel in Newtown, with a Bondi-shot video coming soon. Both songs will appear on Backwards Down the Highway, out early next year.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Pictures of Summer by The Model School
– The solo debut from Mass Cult frontman Dan Trolley ranges from “simple psych garage licks” and New Wave sensations to Bauhaus-inspired darkness, according to the presser. The standout ‘Slow Reaction’ is more straightforward than a lot of the “persevering synth barrage” of Hours Electric, released on Trolley’s own Conspiracy Tapes label. Trolley wrote, played and recorded the entire thing, though he did hand it over to Casey Rice for mastering. The cassette gets launched next Thursday (Nov 8) at Gasometer with support from Machine and Mountain Static.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Slow reaction by Dan Trolley
– Lumbering forward with perhaps more grim weight than you’d expect from a band called Sex Wizard (often compressed to SXWZD), ‘Vengeful God’ is nonetheless a representative slice of the Adelaide six-piece’s noisy, low-to-the-ground, double-drummer hardcore on second album Grey Matter/White Matter (although some songs are a bit faster). It’s out now through Adelaide’s Clarity Records.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.] Sex Wizard - Vengeful God by clarityrecords
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